A CENTURY AGO

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 17 May 1941, Page 9

A CENTURY AGO

STORY OF NELSON PIONEER “THE LITTLE EMIGRANT” An account of the voyage by a Nelson pioneer on the Lord Auckland in 1841 is given in the "Methodist Times.” The story begins with the sailing of the first emigrant ship for Nelson—at the end of September, 1841. So it was nearly 100 years ago. On board of the i ship Lord Auckland, as this little! emigrant fleet left London to found the Nelson settlement of the New Zealand 1 Company, were Mr and Mrs Josephus Hargreaves, from Leeds. Their family! was a large one. for their eldest son had I recently married, while the youngest child was an infant in arms. Mrs Hargreaves had given her girls “Scripture! names.” as she proudly explained—they j were Sarah. Mary and Elizabeth. The I baby was Elizabeth, and the eldest girl was Sarah, a lass of 14 years. So they sailed away from London ! in September, 1841, headed for Nelson, j Where Nelson was to be no one on board knew, for the site of the settlement was not actually chosen by the forerunners of the expedition until Ist ; November, by which time the Lord Auckland was far out in the Atlantic. So the ships sailed on. and in due course , the fastest sailer, the Fifeshire, reach- [ ed Nelson on Ist February, which is ! Nelson’s Aniversary Day. The Lord i Auckland made a slower passage reaching Nelson on 28th February. DIPHTHERIA EPIDEMIC Now let us skip over 23 intervening years to January, 1865. The little emigrant lass, Sarah Hargreaves, has become Mrs Thompson, wife of a settler

at Richmond. Her eldest daughter is 17. | The household has been added to in numbers by the arrival of twins—a boy ] and a girL A welcome addition this,: lor Mr and Mrs Thompson had not J long before lost three lit'tle girls in the! diphtheria epidemic which swept over the Nelson Settlement in the early sixties. The problem of what to name ihc new baby girl was settled by the visit to the Thompson home of Miss Laura Herford, who had come from London on a I sad mission. Her brother, Major Wal- ! ter Vernon Herford of the Waikato Mil- ! itia, had been wounded in the head • j during the assault by British forces on | Orakau Pa, defended by the Maoris of. i the Waikato in April of the previous l year. When news of this reached Loni don by sailing ship in August, what did! i Miss Herford do but lay down her paint l ! brushes and pallette—for she was an j [artist with a studio —and sail on the; [ship Victory for Auckland. Sad news 1 : awaited Miss Herford. Her brother had 'died of his wounds even before she had [ left London. To-day you may see the ! headstone over his grave in the historic churchyard at Otahuhu. So Miss Herford came on to Nelson. She had a letter of introduction to Mr [Thompson who was a relative of an old ilady in London whose liberality had enabled Miss Herford to study painting [ under the best masters. For in the ’six- | ties a woman artist was much more of a novelty than a woman aeroplane pilot is to-day. Miss Herford’s name has been recorded in the history of British art, because she was the first woman permitted to study at the Royal Academy Schools. INSPIRATION FOR PICTURE So Mrs Sarah Thompson—the little emigrant lass that was—nursed her twin babies and spoke to Miss Herford of the voyage to Nelson in 1841—told of the loneliness and homesickness that came over her as she used to sit by the bulwarks of the Lord Auckland during the voyage of five long months. Then the lady artist exclaim- | ed: “You have given me a motif: I will paint you as ‘The Little Emigrant’ And paint this picture she did on her ! arrival in London. You can see that pic- I

ture to-day if you call on the elderly lady who was named Laura Herford | Thompson after the visitor to that home I in 1865. For it so happened that the picture I was sent out to New Zealand in 1870 and for 40 years it was the most chcr-! ished possession of the original “Little j Emigrant.” Now it has descended to ! Mrs Laura Herford Sheat. of 3 Preston Avenue. Mount Albert. Auckland, who has recently celebrated her 76th birthday. And. of course, the picture is almost as old as its owner, whose name was given in honour of the visit of Miss Herford to that Nelson family in 1865. Nearly 50 years ago Miss Laura Thompson married Mr Alfred Sheat. whose parents also landed in Nelson in 1842. By a strange coincidence about a year ago Mrs Sheat. daughter of the little emigrant lass from Leeds, was brought into touch with the granddaughter of the gallant Major Herford.

.I to be worse, assuming that shipping i losses are maintained as at present, and j this, notwithstanding anything either , j we, or America, can do in the way of -! replacements. Are we to destroy : j thousands of tons of meat or can it be • dealt with in some other way? Apparently some 40 per cent, of our whole production is consumed in the ■ country, but we already rank second ► in the world as meat eaters per head of population. Are our farmers then to : be ruined? Already many in this neighbourhood are in difficulties. Now my suggestion of using the ice I; and snow of the Antarctic may seem i a bit wild and unpractical, but it may ‘; start people thinking on the subject. ; 1 Modern machinery could make huge , snow houses at very little cost, into 1 ! which the frozen carcases could be de- ; i posited and kept indefinitely. A uni- , | form temperature could be maintained ;if such be necessary. Europe and i possibly other continents may be starv--1 ing when the war is over. Mr Seifert says that “alternative markets, canning, increased home con- : sumption, or building additional storage offer no real solution. Something might be done through digesters (boiling down) possibly. Otherwise I I suggest we should encourage the breed- ;; ing of meat -eating animals like cats and dogs whose pelts are valuable. Lion or tiger farms such as they find ' so profitable in America would be useful at present in this country. The cat and rat farm in which the cats eat the rats, and the rats eat the cats when killed, the profits being made on the cat skins, (now, like those of the rabbit, commanding such tremendous prices), ' has always appealed to me. Years ago in your paper 1 remember more than once advocating the farming of silver l'oxes in this country, as has been done so profitably elsewhere, but life here is too easy, and the people consequently wanting in enterprise. Government interference and spoon feeding are ie- [ sponsible for many of our troubles. Human nature is much the same as j when Saint Cadox in the 6th century ; wrote as follows:—“Poverty begets Effort; Effort begets Success; Success ! begets War; War begets Poverty;